Criminal lawyers for Aggravated Sexual Assault

Aggravated Sexual Assault – s 61J Crimes Act 1900

It is an offence if you have sexual intercourse with a victim, without the victim’s consent, knowing that the victim did not consent to it in ‘circumstances of aggravation’.

A specialist criminal defence lawyer will be able to give you high quality, accurate and realistic advice on the best defences available to you. Our exclusively hand-picked Sydney criminal lawyers and barristers main focus is to getting your charges dropped early. They have a wealth of experience in regularly appearing in court with a proven track record of getting outstanding results in getting charges dropped, and proving their client’s innocence in court.

Your Options in Court

PLEADING NOT GUILTY

To be found guilty, police must first prove, ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, you:

Had sexual intercourse with the other person, and

The sexual intercourse occurred without the other person’s consent, and

You knew the other person did not consent to it, and

It occurred in ‘circumstances of aggravation’

If any one or more of the above are not proven by police, then you will be found not guilty.

What is ‘circumstances of aggravation’?

‘Circumstances of aggravation’ will apply to you if any of the following apply to your situation:

You intentionally or recklessly caused the victim, or anyone else present or nearby, actual bodily harm at the time of committing the offence

You threaten to inflict actual bodily harm on the victim, or any other person nearby with the use of an offensive weapon or instrument at the time of committing the offence

You were in the company of another person(s) in addition to the victim

The victim was under the age of 16 years

The victim was under your authority

The victim has a cognitive impairment or serious physical disability

There was a break and enter into a house or property by you, and at which time you had an intention of committing the offence of sexual assault or any other serious indictable offence

You deprived the victim of his or her liberty for a period before or after committing the offence

Defences to this charge

You will be found NOT GUILTY to this charge if:

None of the ‘aggravating circumstances’ noted above apply

You had a reasonable ground for believing the alleged victim gave you consent

Intercourse was for a medical purpose

The alleged victim in fact did give you consent to the sexual intercourse

There was no sexual intercourse which can be inferred from showing there was no injuries of abrasions, nor any traces of the accused DNA on the alleged victim’s body

Duress or Necessity

PLEADING GUILTY

Before pleading guilty, it is important to first speak with an experienced sexual assault lawyer to exhaust all other avenues before resorting to this option without losing out on some of the benefits you can get from pleading guilty.

25% Discount on punishment

The earlier you plead guilty, the greater the discount off the punishment you are entitled to by law. This means, if you plead guilty at an early enough stage of the case, you may be entitled to a discount of up to 25%. This can result in a significantly more lenient punishment and avoid prison.

Negotiate to drop charges

You can always try to negotiate charges to drop or downgrade them resulting in a much more lenient punishment and outcome.

This can be done by analysing the police evidence very carefully before picking out all the problems in their case when approaching police and DPP on reasons why it should be dropped. Our experienced defence team have achieved this on countless clients, and it is not surprising they continue to achieve these kinds of results. With a complete focus and priority on this option, you can maximise your chances at achieving this by ensuring you have an experienced and tactful defence lawyer who is well recognised as a leader in the field.

Negotiate facts

The Judge will ultimately punish you based on what is written in the police facts about what you did. This is why it’s critical to begin working on getting it changed as early as possible by negotiating with police. You can achieve this by knowing the police evidence inside out, pointing out all holes and inconsistencies in their evidence when negotiating to change the facts to something more favourable to you, putting you in a better light than the way police often do.

This will create a much better outcome on punishment for you, achieved by our team of specialist defence lawyers for over 20 years.

Good character references

Our specialist team will guide you at every step of your case, particularly in obtaining exceptional good character references in order to be handed to the Judge. These references will be checked and reviewed by our experts who will give you feedback in order to ensure that each reference addresses all the relevant points to put across about you and your case.

Psychologist reports

Referring you to a specialist expert psychologist or psychiatrist is one of the most powerful ways to present your side of the story and provide an explanation for your conduct to the court. One of the other powerful use of these reports is that it gives the Judge insight into your state of mind at the time of the offence. As only an expert can diagnose your mental illness, your illness can be expressed in a report by an expert, which often results in a lesser punishment. Specialist criminal lawyers have hand selected the best psychologists and psychiatrists in Australia for this job maximising your chances of getting the best possible result in court.

Maximum penalty

The offence of aggravated sexual assault carries a maximum punishment of 20 years imprisonment. The maximum punishment is not normally given by courts, and in fact only reserved for those offenders who repeatedly commit the same offence over and over again with a lengthy criminal record.

Full time prison is not the only punishment available for a Judge to give you. Prison is a sentence the court would rather avoid if possible. There are many other options of punishment and a specialist sexual assault lawyer should be able to carefully prepare your sentence in the ways expressed above to maximise your chances of getting the best possible result.

Types of Penalties

The Specialist Criminal Lawyers team focus on downgrading and dropping your charges at an early stage, with an emphasis on achieving the best possible outcome for your case. They have a proven track record of exceptional results in all kinds of sexual assault cases.